24 inch vs 26 inch

jurban

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Question about barrel length, in a 300 Win Mag or 300 Weatherby Mag will it make that big of difference when shooting out to 300 yards 24" vs 26" in ballistics?
 
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IMHO ...... any bbl over 24" is a pain in the neck to hunt with. Too long and the velocity gains are not worth the hassle. I'd choose another caliber if I had to have that much bbl.





 
Ok what about on bullet drop will it make a difference there. I see according to Federal Premium ballistic on a 300 Win Mag with a 180Gr Barnes ### it drops 6.8" when sighted at 200 yard. And the 300 Weatherby Mag with the same bullet 6.1".
 
The difference in bullet drop, just like the difference between the 300 win and the 300 Weatherby, would be insignificant. Less than 1/2 inch.
You have to remember; most people shooting most hunting rifles are hard pressed to shoot groups under four inches at 300 yards. Even a 2 inch difference in bullet drop pretty well gets lost in the shuffle. Regards, Bill.
 
If I was going to have a 24" barrel,or if my shooting was 300 yards or less,I would stick with the 300win mag.Under these restrictions,the 300wby will not offer any significant advantage,to offset the greater recoil and much more expensive factory loads.
 
Out to 300 yards is referred to as 'point blank' range by the benchrest clique. And for good reason - out to that distance, drop is nearly irrelevant. You'll notice that the preferred cartridge and bullet to this range is usually the very very mild 6ppc with lightweight flat-base bullets. Benchresters have access to streamlined boattail bullets and higher intensity cartridges, yet they prefer to go with the slower cartridges, less efficient flat-base bullets and usually shorter barrels. Simply because there's no real difference out to 300 yards - in fact the opposite is true, to a small degree.


The lesson learned here - don't worry about the velocity loss of your Magnum cartridge out to 300 yards. Yes, there certainly IS a difference on paper, and on your chrony's readout. But that difference is utterly insignificant at this range. It is WELL witin the margin of error.

It will be louder and with more muzzle flash, but all magnums will be loud with a lot of flash anyway. Hell, all guns are loud, period.
 
There is one case where a 26 inch barrell was needed,the .264 Win Mag,shooters wanted (demanded)a 24 inch barrell! It then went down the tubes! A 7 mil Rem Mag took up the space!

Bob
 
Leeper said:
The difference in bullet drop, just like the difference between the 300 win and the 300 Weatherby, would be insignificant. Less than 1/2 inch.
You have to remember; most people shooting most hunting rifles are hard pressed to shoot groups under four inches at 300 yards. Even a 2 inch difference in bullet drop pretty well gets lost in the shuffle. Regards, Bill.


Ya know sometimes the truth hurts:p I can shoot pretty consistantly with my .308 at 100 and 150 but once I reach out to the 300 yd range the humble pie comes with bells on.

So if the 24" doesn't make a nominal difference from the 26" how much difference would a 20" barrel make and would it be practical to be used in a .300?:confused:
 
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